Some of you may have heard about Slingbox, but others may think its some weird sexual contraption. Its not… unless of course you want to stream the Playboy channel from your cable TV box. Basically what it does is take what's being shown on your TV and stream it through the internet to your computer, mobile phone, refrigerator, etc. I find it pretty useful for business trips where there's free WiFi or when I'm stuck in an airport where "The View" is the only thing being shown in the lobby area. Check out my attempt at making a video preview and read my 6 points below:
1. Its Easy: Much like any good sexual contraption, its really easy to use and setup. All you do is plug it into the wall, the TV, and the internet and you're halfway done. From there, you download the software from slingbox.com and go through a simple wizard to complete the setup. That's about it - you're now able to watch all those fantastic Don Draper moments from your laptop.
2. Quality: So the Slingbox I'm using is the Slingbox Solo. It has HD inputs, but doesn't stream in HD - you need the Slingbox Pro-HD to do that. But from what I've experienced, the Solo does just fine and looks great on both my macbook pro and iPhone. As I mentioned in the video above, there is a lag between the real-time TV and what you're seeing on the Slingbox client. Not a big deal at all, but it's there. The audio is really good to and doesn't have problems keeping up with the video like some other streaming applications do.
3. Mobile Applications: This is where the Slingbox goes from cool to awesome. Once you download the app onto your iPhone, Windows Mobile, or Blackberry smartphone, you can immediately watch your TV after some minor setup. I've used it on both a Windows Mobile phone (Motorola Q9) and my iPhone 3GS and both work really well. Keep in mind for the iPhone, you need to be on WiFi to use this app.
4. Control: From either the mobile application or the desktop application, you can easily control what's on your cable box. I use it a lot for accessing my saved shows on my DVR, or even watching live Football games when I'm in an area that doesn't show my local team. As you can see in the pic above, there's a pretty intuitive remote that works with most cable boxes (I'm on RCN, not Comcast, but the remotes work the same). Fast Forward, Rewind, Pause, Video On Demand - its all there.
5. Use it for other TVs: Sling also has another product that puts what's on your cable box onto another TV (like in another room), and its called the SlingCatcher (I know, another sexual contraption name). Think of it as taking what you can do on your laptop and easily throwing it up on the TV screen. Its not useful to me, but I could see this being helpful if you didn't want to pay for cable and hooked up a Slingbox at your parent's house and the SlingCatcher at your house.
6. Cost: Ok, this part may push you away from this pretty fantastic product, but here goes: the Slingbox Solo is $160 on Amazon and the Pro-HD is $260. Its not cheap, but it really is a great addition to your media center if you watch a lot of TV. I should also mention the iPhone app is $30, so the total cost of the Solo and the app is around 2 Franklins. If you're thinking you might want to buy, I'd appreciate you going through Amazon (I get a referral). Here are links to the Solo, Pro-HD, and Catcher for your convenience:
